Hayk Sargsi Kotanjian (, born in 1945 in

Leninakan Gyumri (, ) is an urban municipal community and the List of cities and towns in Armenia, second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th centur ...

Armenian SSR The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia bordered the Soviet republics ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

) is an Armenian military diplomat, academic and political adviser. Kotanjian is the author of several monographs in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

as well as numerous articles on

crisis management Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. The study of crisis management originated with large-scale industrial and envi ...

ethnic conflict An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within so ...

, security, defense and

strategic studies Strategic studies is an interdisciplinary academic field centered on the study of peace and conflict strategies, often devoting special attention to the relationship between military history, international politics, geostrategy, international ...

, and

cyberpsychology Cyberpsychology (also known as Internet psychology, web psychology, or digital psychology) is a scientific Interdisciplinarity, inter-disciplinary domain that focuses on the Psychology, psychological phenomena which emerge as a result of the Inte ...

. Since 2005, he has headed the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

and since 2016 has been the Head of the

National Defense Research University The National Defense Research University (NDRU) () is a higher educational institution of the Armed Forces of Armenia. It is roughly the equivalent of to the American National Defense University in Washington, D.C. Overview The NDRU was establish ...

.Hayk Kotanjian. Head of the National Defense Research University, MOD, RA
/ref> He also chairs the Political Science Association and the Board of Conferment of Academic Degrees in Political Science and International Relations of the

National Academy of Sciences of Armenia The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) (, ''Hayastani Hanrapetut’yan gitut’yunneri azgayin akademia'') is the Armenian national academy, functioning as the primary body that conducts research and coordinates activ ...

.Тер-Григорьянц Н. «Слово об авторе», Г. Котанджян «Политологические проблемы безопасности: Перестройка СССР - Карабах, Армения, Закавказье – Афганистан». Ер., ИНСИ МО РА, 2009. С. 282-285

Biography

In 19th century, his ancestors came to

Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

and then to Aleksandrapol from the mountain regions of

Western Armenia Western Armenia (Western Armenian: Արեւմտեան Հայաստան, ''Arevmdian Hayasdan'') is a term to refer to the western parts of the Armenian highlands located within Turkey (formerly the Ottoman Empire) that comprise the historic ...

. His grandfather Ararat Avoyan and his great grandfather Sotnik Melkon were officers in the

Russian Imperial Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

and

cavalier The term ''Cavalier'' () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of Charles I of England and his son Charles II of England, Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum (England), Int ...

s of the Cross of Saint George. In 1971, Kotanjian graduated from the Technical Cybernetics Department of the

Yerevan Polytechnic Institute The National Polytechnic University of Armenia () is a technical university located in Yerevan, Armenia. Established as the Karl Marx Institute of Polytechnic in 1933, it provides educational and research programs in various fields of technology ...

Military career

Kotanjian has been serving in

Armenian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia (, abbreviated ՀՀ ԶՈՒ, ''HH ZU''), sometimes referred to as the Armenian Army (), is the national military of Armenia. It consists of personnel branches under the General Staff of the Armenian Arm ...

since 1992 and before that he was conscript in

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

. He holds the military rank of

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

and diplomatic rank of

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...

. He has a diploma in

counterterrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and Intelligence agency, intelligence ...

from National Defense University of the United States.Оганесян Н. Article: "Особая школа: Основоположник армянской военной политологии и политологии национальной безопасности." «Голос Армении» newspaper. 7-31-2010Армянский биографический словарь "Кто есть кто". Volume 2. pp. 663-664 During his military career, he was commissioned to the war from the position of the Deputy head of the Armenian Communist Party Central Committee Science division, was tasked the coordination of the establishment of the first Afghan National Academy of Sciences (the academic supervisor of the program was the President of the Soviet Tajikistan National Academy of Sciences Academician M. Asimov). He was the founding Head of the Division of Military Policy, in the Ministry of Defense of Armenia which later was transformed into the Department of international relations and military cooperation (1996),Hayk Kotanjian, «Managing Strategic Changes Through DEEP Reforms: A View from the Perspective of U.S.-Armenia „Smart Power“ Cooperation». Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes. «Connections», The Quarterly Journal, 2012, pp. 83-91. He was also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the ''Haikakan Banak'' ("Armenian Army") defense-academic journal in 1994. He served in the military diplomacy system of Armenian Armed Forces from 1995—1998, setting up the first Defense Office in the US We He worked in the first postgraduate school in the Armed Forces in the late 2000s,

Other aspects of his career

Role in "Perestroika"

In 1971-1978, Kotanjian was the First Secretary of Leninakan City Committee of Leninist Young Communist League of Armenia. In 1981 – 1985 he was Deputy Head of the Department of Science and Educational Institutions, Central Committee of Communist Party, Armenia and coordinated the National Academy of Sciences and Universities. After graduation from the special post graduate school of the Academy of Social Sciences, USSR Communist Party, he was included into the political reserve of the USSR Communist Party Central Committee leadership. Through the support of Soviet Armenia Government and the Soviet Union State Committee for Vocational Technical Education, he elaborated the special program of systemic modernization of Armenian Vocational Technical Education with involvement of modern technical – technological resources of the USSR ministries of defense industry system represented in the Soviet Armenia economy. In 1986 Kotanjian was appointed as a Head of Hrazdan regional committee of Communist Party. The Hrazdan region was one of the power houses of USSR Defense Industry. In July and December 1987, as a member of Armenian Communist Party Central Committee, during Central Committee plenary sessions he publicly accused the leaders of Armenian Communist party of cronyism and corruption, and of sabotaging the policy of reforms aimed at modernization of society, also known as “Perestroika”. Kotanjian’s views on reforms were supported by USSR liberal-democratic circles and reformist faction of the USSR Communist party.

Actions during the Spitak Earthquake and the Sumgait Massacres

In 1988 based on his orders Hrazdan region law enforcement bodies launched clandestine activities to register the testimonies of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijani city

Sumgait Sumqayit (or Sumgait; ; , ) is a city in Azerbaijan, located near the Caspian Sea, on the Absheron Peninsula, about away from the capital Baku. The city had a population of 427,000 at the beginning of 2024, making it the List of cities in Azerb ...

. These testimonies are proofs of Genocidal actions implemented against Armenian population of Sumgait. Today those “White notes” are located in the archives of Armenia’s General Prosecutor office and are the only professionally systemized evidences on Sumgait massacres. In 1989 on Kotanjian’s initiative, as a result of negotiations with Azerbaijani relevant authorities, an unprecedented swap of 3000 Azerbaijanis living in

Hrazdan Hrazdan ( ) is a town and urban municipal community in Armenia serving as the administrative centre of Kotayk Province, located northeast of the capital Yerevan. As of the 2011 census, the population of the town is 44,231. During the Soviet Uni ...

region with Armenians from

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

was implemented. The financial and property interests of all people involved in the program were guaranteed. In 1989-1990, he was an inspector for the

First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia The Communist Party of Armenia (, ) was a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union within the Armenian SSR, and as such, the sole ruling party in the Armenian SSR. History The first Marxist group in Armenia was founded by Stepan Shaumi ...

, he elaborated official policy papers on Karabakh conflict for the leadership of the Central Committee of the Armenian Communist Party. Kotanjian, as a member of the national headquarters dealing with evacuation of population from earthquake zone, coordinated the program of redeployment of 30.000 people from earthquake zone, mainly women and children, to the different resorts of Soviet Union with full provision of food, medicine and education process.

Government in exile of the Nagorno Karabakh

In April – December 1991, Kotanjian was Minister of foreign affairs of the

Nagorno Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh (, ; ) is a region in Azerbaijan, covering the southeastern stretch of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Part of the greater region of Karabakh, it spans the area between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik. Its ter ...

Government in Exile in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

with Marius Yuzbashyan (Minister of National Security) and Yuri Barseghov (Minister of Justice). The government was working during the period of the Soviet sanctions against Armenia as a result of latter rejection to participate in the March 1991 referendum on the Soviet Union based the new Federative Union treaty organized by

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

. The government in exile supported the authorities of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh to make sober assessments of threats eliminating from the collapse of the USSR. The utmost significance for both Armenia and Karabakh was the assessment on perspectives of the coup d’état, organized in Moscow in August 1991. The consultations delivered by the government in exile were instrumental in the process of elaboration of key decisions on the proclamation of Nagorno Karabakh Republic on September 2, 1991, organizing the September 21, 1991 independence Referendum in Armenia and December 10, 1991 Independence Referendum in Nagorno Karabakh. The formation of government in exile by USSR MP Zory Balayan and the acting Armenian Interior Minister Ashot Manucharyan was an extraordinary step, implemented in the extreme unfavorable conditions for the establishment of Armenia and Artsakh sovereignty.

Honors

He has state awards of the

, Armenia, and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. He was also awarded with a personal weapon. In recognition of Kotanjian's contribution to Armenian-American and Armenia-

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

defense cooperation, he received the

Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States military, military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievemen ...

award from the

United States Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

. In 2008, he was nominated as Distinguished Graduate of the

George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies is a bi-national United States Department of Defense and Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany) security and defense studies institute. When the Marshall Center was founded in 1993, its ...

.Dr. MG Hayk Kotanjian of Armenia named Marshal Center graduate, JUNE 13, 2008, «A1+» T

/ref> He is a founding member of the Marshall Center Alumni Association in Armenia. He is a member of the Board of Academic Experts of the

Collective Security Treaty Organization The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO, ) is an Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Th ...

. In 2010, he was a visiting scholar at the National Security Program of the

John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotanjian, Hayk Living people Armenian non-fiction writers Military writers Scholars of terrorism 1945 births People from Gyumri Foreign recipients of the Legion of Merit Armenian generals Armenian male writers English-language writers German-language writers Russian-language writers Armenian-language writers